--- title: Hiring a head of partnerships or business development description: Pick the partner type first (channel, integrations or alliances), then test head of partnerships candidates on the first three partners they would name. image: https://funded.club/hubfs/og_image_funded.png --- [![Primary\_logo](https://funded.club/hubfs/Primary_logo.svg)](https://funded.club/) [Book a call](https://funded.club/contact-us) - [Hire](https://funded.club) - [Pricing](https://funded.club/pricing) - [Find a job](https://funded.club/startupjobs) - [Case Studies](https://funded.club/case-studies) - [Locally](https://funded.club/case-studies/locally) - [Supernova](https://funded.club/case-studies/supernova) - [Isolocity](https://funded.club/case-studies/isolocity) - [WeTravel](https://funded.club/case-studies/wetravel) - [Digital Science](https://funded.club/case-studies/digital-science) - [Blog](https://funded.club/blog-results) - [Resources](https://funded.club/resources) - [Predict success](https://signup.predict.ventures/) - [Growth Planner](https://funded.club/growth-planner) - [Glossary](https://funded.club/glossary) - [FAQ](https://funded.club/faq) - [Contact us](https://funded.club/contact-us) [Book a call](https://funded.club/contact-us) - Engagement options: - [Hiring solutions](https://funded.club) - [Pay-as-you-go](https://funded.club/pricing) - Membership plan # Hiring a head of partnerships or business development [Ray Gibson](https://funded.club/blog/author/ray-gibson) Nov 15, 2026, 5:17:25 AM *Updated November 2026* To hire a head of partnerships or business development, first decide which kind of partner you need: channel partners who resell, technology partners who integrate, or strategic alliances with large companies. Each type needs a different person, and none will work unless the partner has a product reason to care about you. In the final interview, ask each candidate to name the first three partners they would approach and explain what each one gets out of it. ## Start with what the partner gets Partnerships hires usually fail because partners were given no reason to engage. If a partner gains nothing concrete from working with you, such as a revenue share, a gap in their own product filled or customers who stay longer, no amount of relationship skill will move them. Before you write the job description, write one sentence per likely partner on what they get. Take an illustrative 30-person Series A B2B SaaS company selling expense management to mid-sized firms. The board wants partnerships, and the founder's list has three ideas: accounting firms recommending the tool, the two accounting platforms most customers already use, and a large bank that could bundle it. Accounting firms get fewer hours chasing receipts, and the platforms get cleaner data in their ledgers. The bank gets nothing the founder can name yet, so it comes off the first-year plan, however good the logo would look in a board deck. **Red flag:** if you cannot write the "what they get" sentence for at least two partners, do not hire yet. A head of partnerships hired into that gap spends six months in friendly meetings that never turn into pipeline, and then gets blamed for it. ## Choose the partner type, then the person "Partnerships" covers three jobs with different skills and career histories. Someone who built a reseller programme may have no feel for API roadmaps. Pick the type that matches your best "what they get" sentence and hire for that. Type 1 Channel and resellers A seller who can recruit partners, train their teams and manage margins. Often comes from channel sales or partner management at a software company. Type 2 Integrations and tech partners Product-fluent, comfortable writing specs with engineers and running marketplace listings. Often comes from solutions engineering, product or platform partnerships. Type 3 Strategic alliances Patient with long cycles, credible with executives, good at structuring deals. Often comes from corporate development or enterprise sales. | Partner type | What success looks like in year one | Wrong-fit warning sign | | --- | --- | --- | | Channel and resellers | A small number of active partners each bringing in deals, with a partner pipeline you can forecast | Talks about partner count, never about partner-sourced revenue | | Integrations and tech partners | Integrations live, listed and used by your customers, with feedback reaching your roadmap | Has never worked directly with an engineering team | | Strategic alliances | One or two signed agreements with a commercial commitment attached | Every story ends at the signed agreement, with nothing about what happened next | In our example the founder chose integrations first, because the platform partners could be live within a quarter and the accounting firms would be easier to recruit once the integration existed. That moved the shortlist from channel sellers to solutions engineers. Watch the titles. A CV full of "business development" roles can belong to a strong outbound prospector who has never negotiated a partner agreement. Ask what they signed, with whom, and what followed. ## Settle three things before the hire starts A partnerships lead depends on other teams more than most early hires. Agree these points before the offer and put them in the [job scorecard](https://funded.club/blog/job-scorecard-startup-role). - **Engineering time.** An integrations hire with no engineering capacity becomes a project manager waiting in a queue. Agree how much engineering time the role can draw on each quarter. - **Channel conflict rules.** Resellers and your own sales team will sooner or later chase the same account. Decide deal registration and who gets credit before the first dispute, and brief your sales lead, especially if you are also [hiring a VP of sales](https://funded.club/blog/hire-vp-sales-startup). - **Attribution.** Partner-sourced and partner-influenced deals need separate definitions, or the variable pay conversation turns into an argument every quarter. ## The "first three partners" exercise Before the final round, send the candidate a one-page brief: your product, your ideal customer and the partner type you have chosen. Ask them to come back with three named partners they would approach first, what each one gets, who at the partner they would contact, and what a realistic first deal looks like. Weak answer The three biggest names in your market, contacted through "the CEO", with a vague joint webinar as the first step and nothing about what the partner gains. Strong answer Partners chosen for their reason to care, a named role to contact at each, a first deal small enough to close in a quarter, and a list of what they need from you. The best answers often argue with your plan. In the example, the strongest finalist dropped one of the two big platforms because its partner programme was closed to new apps for months, and put a smaller regional accounting platform in its place. That told the founder more about her judgement than any of her stories about past deals. Follow up by calling someone at a partner the candidate worked with, as well as their former manager. Our guide to [startup reference checks](https://funded.club/blog/startup-reference-checks) has questions you can adapt. ## What a recruiter fee looks like for this role Take an illustrative base salary of $140,000, and swap in your own after you benchmark against current data for your market. A contingency recruiter charging 20 to 25% would bill $28,000 to $35,000. On our fixed-fee bands, a role with a salary up to $150,000 costs $11,500, agreed before the search starts. The full bands are on our [pricing page](https://funded.club/pricing). ## Where Funded.club fits We are a fixed-fee recruiting partner for funded startups and fast-growing teams across North America, Europe and APAC, hiring across sales, leadership and other functions. We have helped 500+ startups from Seed to Series D. One dedicated recruiter runs your search end to end, and we agree the partner type and the scorecard with you at kick-off. You see first screened candidates within 7 days, and our average is 33 days from kick-off to hire. Fees average 6 to 9% of salary, with an advance at the start and the balance when your candidate accepts. If we do not deliver a shortlist of at least 3 qualified candidates within 30 days, you can claim the advance back in full. ## Frequently asked questions ### When should a startup hire a head of partnerships? Hire once you can say what at least two partners would gain from working with you and your product can support that partner type. A common sign is customers asking for an integration on sales calls. ### What is the difference between business development and partnerships? At some companies business development means outbound sales. A partnerships role builds relationships where both companies gain, through resellers, integrations or alliances. Check what a candidate has signed rather than trusting the title. ### Should my first partnerships hire be senior? For channel or integrations work, a hands-on lead who runs the first partners personally usually beats a senior leader who expects a team. Alliances with large companies are the exception, because the person needs credibility with executives on the other side. Worth a brief chat about your next hire? [Book a free call](https://funded.club/contact-us). ## Hiring after a funding round? First candidates in 7 days. Fixed-fee, no commission. [See pricing](https://funded.club/pricing) [Book a free call](https://funded.club/contact-us) [Try the Growth Planner](https://funded.club/growth-planner) [![Primary\_logo](https://funded.club/hubfs/funded-images2022/Primary_logo.svg)](https://funded.club) © 2019-2026 Funded.club B.V. All Rights Reserved. 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